Page 40 of Tough Luck

Twenty minutes later, two uniformed officers were escorted into my office, where I had yet to move. I had a cup of iced coffee, no doubt thanks to Nova, since it was my favorite flavor.

For the most part, I sat there in a daze, answering their questions, explaining all about Leonard’s termination, while David gave them copies of the email he’d printed out.

Just as the officers were wrapping up their questions and shaking hands with David, the door to my office swung open.

I held my breath as Rick stepped inside. His face was completely pale. He looked at the two police officers, then at Brenda, then at Nova, before his blue eyes finally locked onto me. The sheer, unadulterated panic in his expression made my throat ache.

“What is going on in here?” Rick’s voice boomed, rich with an authority that had the officers turning around. “Why are the police in my building?”

“Mr. Mylonas.” Brenda stepped forward, keeping her voice calm. “We’ve had a security breach regarding a former employee, who sent an email and threatened Sofia. We are handling it according to corporate legal protocol.”

Hearing this, Rick walked past her, his eyes entirely focused on me. “Good, thanks. I’ll take it from here.”

David motioned for the officers to follow him into the hallway, and Nova and Brenda stepped out after them. Nova pulled my office door shut behind her to give us privacy.

My relationship with Rick might have been a secret from everyone at the office, but Nova wasn’t everyone. She was my best friend. She’d known about us five minutes after I’d kissed Rick that first time.

I’d shared every juicy detail with her, including how I really felt about my boss. How I was falling hard and fast for him. She even knew about my worry that I was going too fast and far. That I feared I was in love.

The second the door clicked, Rick dropped to one knee beside my chair, his hands instantly gripping mine. They were warm, solid, and slightly trembling.

“Sofia,” he breathed, his voice thick with a mixture of terror and fury. “Are you okay? What happened? Why the hell didn’t you call me?”

“I’m okay. I promise,” I said softly, squeezing his hands tightly, letting the familiar warmth of him finally calm my racing heart. “Leonard sent me an email. It was… just an email. But it was pretty bad. I guess it shook me up. So much so that I froze. Nova sort of took over. He threatened my career and told me to watch my back.”

A dark, dangerous shadow crossed Rick’s face, his jaw clenching so hard the muscles jumped. “I’m going to destroy him. I’ll have our legal team sue him, again, this time into the Stone Age. I found out the police were in your office from a text from Jax after our meeting—I almost lost my mind.”

“I should have texted you,” I whispered, leaning forward into his arms. “But look at you right now. You’re ready to burn the city down. If you had stormed in here earlier, I think it would have complicated everything. We had to handle this strictly by the book. Plus, if people saw you reacting like a protective boyfriend instead of a managing partner, it would have put a target on our relationship before we even had a chance to announce it.”

Rick stared at me, his chest rising and falling heavily as my words penetrated the panic. Slowly, the rigid tension in his shoulders began to ease, replaced by a profound look of admiration. He brought my hands up to his lips and pressed a fierce, lingering kiss against my knuckles.

“You are entirely too smart for me,” he murmured, a rugged, breathless chuckle finally escaping him. “I bet they’re talking now. I wasn’t too subtle when I came barging in just now.”

“We can brush it off as a worried boss,” I suggested.

He closed his eyes and shook his head. “No.” He looked at me. “If it’s okay with you, I’d like to make this”—he waved between us—“public.”

“It’s okay with me. I should warn you, though. Nova already knows.”

He smiled. “Jax knows too. So does my family. They’re all okay with it. Dad really likes you.” He stood up, but didn’t let go of my hand. He pulled me up with him until I was safely tucked against his side. “But by the book or not, nobody threatens you. Ever. We’re going to let the police do their job, but you’re staying with me tonight. Agreed?”

I looked up at his stubborn, protective face, and for the first time all morning, a genuine smile touched my lips. “No arguments from me, boss.”

Over the next two weeks, the threat of Leonard ended up doing something I never expected—it fast-tracked our relationship.

What started as packing a temporary overnight bag for me to stay at Rick’s place for safety quickly turned into a more permanent routine. Every morning, I’d grab work clothes from the master closet of Rick’s rental, and every evening, we’d drive back up the mountain together. In a beautiful, roundabout way, I had moved in with him. We fell into a comfortable pattern that felt less like a new relationship and more like coming home with one another. We cooked together, debated work or the brewery app analytics over breakfast, and somehow kept each other grounded.

With the security team on high alert, Rick decided it was time to put our cards on the table. He scheduled a meeting with Brenda in HR to officially disclose our relationship.

By that first afternoon, the corporate grapevine had done its job, and the news spread through the office like wildfire. To my immense relief, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. There were a few raised eyebrows, sure, but Rick’s father, who was technically still the CEO and the ultimate boss of the firm, put out a memo that there was no real conflict of interest. He had even gone to the board with this news and no one saw anything wrong, since Rick was only acting CEO at the moment.

Mostly, everyone just looked relieved that the two most intense people in the building were on the same team.

With our relationship out in the open, it was as if a huge weight was off our shoulders. So, we took the next step to make sure we had covered all bases and officially filed a restraining order against Leonard.

But when the Golden police showed up at the new agency where he worked to serve the paperwork, they hit a dead end. The officers called David in legal, who passed the update directly down to us: Leonard had already been laid off. Apparently, his new firm had hired him under the assumption that he was bringing the Clear Creek Brewery account with him. When we won the account, they had cut him loose on the spot. Even worse, the police checked his last known address only to find it completely empty. He hadn’t even left a forwarding address. He was off the grid, a ghost with a grudge.

“It’s going to be fine,” Rick reassured me, pressing a comforting kiss to the top of my head as we walked out to the parking lot on Friday evening. “The police have a flag on his name. Let’s just focus on tonight.”